Posted
by
samzenpuson Wednesday March 05, 2014 @08:40PM
from the cover-your-mouth dept.

sciencehabit writes "A new, deadly H5N8 strain of avian influenza penetrated the biosecurity defenses of a National Institute of Animal Science (NIAS) campus near Seoul, prompting authorities to cull all of the facility's 11,000 hens and 5000 ducks. The incident highlights the difficulty of protecting poultry farms from circulating avian influenza viruses. 'We are taking this situation very seriously,' said Lee Jun-Won, deputy agriculture minister, at a press conference yesterday in Seoul. He noted that NIAS has the country's most secure facilities and most vigilant staff. Lee said they were looking at three possible routes the virus could have taken onto campus: wild birds, NIAS vehicles, and supply deliveries. 'We will determine the reason for the infection, and we are going to hold those responsible accountable,' he said."

Nature is most perseverant. Sure glad I don't eat any poultry products, by products from Korea. At least, I don't think I do, but that Poisoned Milk thing from China showed just how global food distribution is, even to a seemingly unrelated supplier half way around the world.

"Sure glad I don't eat any poultry products,what does that have to do with anything?

"but that Poisoned Milk thing from China showed just how global food distribution isthat event happened in China, from local production. Why do you think that has anything to do with global food distribution?

Lee said they were looking at three possible routes the virus could have taken onto campus: wild birds, NIAS vehicles, and supply deliveries. 'We will determine the reason for the infection, and we are going to hold those responsible accountable,' he said."

Lee said they were looking at three possible routes the virus could have taken onto campus: wild birds, NIAS vehicles, and supply deliveries. 'We will determine the reason for the infection, and we are going to hold those responsible accountable,' he said."

OK... Just how do you hold wild birds accountable???

Form a Fact Finding Committee, start several task forces, budget a few hundred million for the whole process, lose sight of the objective, point fingers, trade polarizing recriminations in media and ultimately issue a report that is over 1,000 pages long and nobody can even understand.

Lee said they were looking at three possible routes the virus could have taken onto campus: wild birds, NIAS vehicles, and supply deliveries. 'We will determine the reason for the infection, and we are going to hold those responsible accountable,' he said."

OK... Just how do you hold wild birds accountable???

DDT. It did a great job of lowering several species populations to the brink of extinction. As an added side benefit, it will also get rid of mosquitos and other pesky insects.

I read TFA, but I'm still not clear on this...did the virus escape from the facility's biosecurity defenses and infect animals in the wild, or did the virus penetrate the biosecurity defenses from animals in the wild to infect the facility's animals?

"Lee said they were looking at three possible routes the virus could have taken onto campus"

I wasn't clear if that meant out of their research building and onto the campus at large, or from offsite onto campus, but now I see a quote in TFA that clarifies it:

. Lee said they were looking at three possible routes the virus could have taken onto campus: wild birds, NIAS vehicles, and supply deliveries

So this seems much less scary, when I first read the summary, I thought a research virus had escaped from their facility to their bird flocks, but now it seems clear that someone tracked in the virus from outside, which is not surprising since it's hard to disinfect an entire supply truck.

I read TFA, but I'm still not clear on this...did the virus escape from the facility's biosecurity defenses and infect animals in the wild, or did the virus penetrate the biosecurity defenses from animals in the wild to infect the facility's animals?

Pasteur was very late to the game. Vaccination had already been invented by Jenner decades before Pasteur's birth, and even before that there was "variolation," which was essentially deliberate inoculation with smallpox (taken from scabs of smallpox patients) in order to bestow immunity. So, long before Pasteur, it was well-known that smallpox was transmissible, how to transmit it, and that people could become immune to it.

Pasteur did create several vaccines, and his experiments largely established the germ

In the age of the airliner, a poultry farmer wipes his nose the wrong way, shakes another guy's hand, 2d guy gets on a jet to Hong Kong, jet stops long enough to change crews and off to sunny California. Kills the guys in the first village, flight crew spreads it to Hong Kong, then right to the US in less than a day.

This story made me think of the game "Plague Inc." by Ndemic Creations [ndemiccreations.com]. I currently play it on my phone while in transit.The idea is to mutate and spread a pathogen (bacteria, virus, fungus, parasite, prion, nano-virus, bio-weapon, neurax worm, and the zombie-making necroa virus) until the whole world is dead, mind-controlled (neurax worm), or zombified (necroa virus).

One of the ways to infect everyone is to acquire the ability to spread through birds, just like this article is about.